Whether South Carolina can win an SEC title isn’t a debate. Just ask Shane Beamer
Shane Beamer spent part of Monday on the defensive. Not because that was his prerogative, but because there is skepticism around the South Carolina football team.
There’s skepticism despite coming off a 9-4 season, having a quarterback who’s in the Heisman conversation, retention of nearly every assistant coach, a fairly favorable schedule, perhaps the best edge rusher in America and a program that’s a projected playoff contender.
There is trepidation about declaring the Gamecocks anything more than an upper-middle-class SEC program. To believe they ascend into the group of teams that can be mentioned in conference and national championship conversations without ensuing laughter.
South Carolina is right on that line, which led SEC Network host Paul Finebaum to interject into a Beamer answer with skepticism.
The USC head coach was on the set of the SEC Network and gushing about his program as if he was reciting a recruiting pitch.
“We want nothing more than to bring a championship to Columbia,” Beamer said Monday inside the Omni Atlanta Hotel, “and that’s what we’re working towards each and every day.”
This is where host Finebaum spoke up. The words “Columbia” and “championship” in the same sentence were too much.
“Is that doable?” Finebaum said.
To ask if something is doable is almost to imply that it’s not. And, to be fair to Finebaum, his apparent doubt is not unfounded.
South Carolina has only once been close to winning the SEC (2010) and has not been in the national championship conversation since the Black Magic team of 1984. After a while, it is reasonable to question things without precedent.
And yet Beamer doesn’t see it that way because, to him, South Carolina is close and has been close.
“We’ve shown we can do it,” Beamer told reporters later, referencing the Finebaum interaction. “2010 was my last season working at South Carolina as an assistant. In that season, we played for the SEC Championship and we beat Georgia, we beat Florida, we beat Tennessee, we beat Clemson, we beat Alabama when they were No. 1 in the country.
“The resources we have now in Columbia — on and off the field — are so much better than what we had in 2010,” Beamer continued.
He went on to acknowledge that, yes, 2025 is different than 2010. There are new teams, new coaches, new circumstances. But now, like then, the Gamecocks have proven they can hang with and beat the best teams in America. If South Carolina can beat the best teams in the SEC, doesn’t that mean they’re capable of winning a conference title?
“Absolutely it’s attainable. And I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was,” Beamer said. “I didn’t come here to go 7-5 every year. I came to South Carolina to compete for championships. And we’re there.”
That might be presumptuous.
You cannot talk about South Carolina’s misfortune against LSU and Alabama in 2024 without acknowledging its good fortune against Old Dominion (Remember that game?), Missouri and Clemson. It could be argued that the Gamecocks are as close to winning a championship as it is to finishing 7-5. Both outcomes — to use Finebaum’s word — are “doable.”
And that seems to be Beamer’s point — no one knows anything. Preseason projections are silly. The same media members that projected South Carolina to finish 13th in the league in 2024 are the same folks who will likely forecast the Gamecocks to be a top six team in the conference this week.
And that’s possible. Same with a 7-5 season, and same with a trophy.
“We certainly have to earn our respect,” Beamer said.
South Carolina’s 2025 football schedule
Flex games kick off in either 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. range, or 7 to 8 p.m. range
- Aug. 31: vs. Virginia Tech in Atlanta, 3 p.m. on ESPN
- Sept. 6: vs. SC State, 7 p.m. on SECN+
- Sept. 13: vs. Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. on ESPN OR 7:45 p.m. on SEC Network
- Sept. 20: at Missouri, flex game (afternoon or night)
- Sept. 27: vs. Kentucky, flex game (afternoon or night)
- Oct. 4: BYE WEEK
- Oct. 11: at LSU, flex game (afternoon or night)
- Oct. 18: vs. Oklahoma, early game (noon to 1 p.m.)
- Oct. 25: vs. Alabama, flex game (afternoon or night)
- Nov. 1: at Ole Miss, flex game (afternoon or night)
- Nov. 8: BYE WEEK
- Nov. 15: at Texas A&M, early game (noon to 1 p.m.)
- Nov. 22: vs. Coastal Carolina, afternoon game (3:30 to 4:30 p.m.)
- Nov. 29: vs. Clemson, noon on ESPN or ABC
This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
